Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī Prabhu has given a very clear conception of the true view, published for the Kṛṣṇa-loving demeanour of the devotees. The akhila-rasāmṛta mūrti, Kṛṣṇa’s nomenclature, is delineated in the aphorisms under guarded words, whose characteristic brevity is meant to delude and confuse the barren, unsoft, unripe, non-relative amplifiers by way of their own impoverished reasons. Moreover, misunderstood versions of Vedanta will again mislead people, just like the misconceptions of the Uḍūpī paṇḍitas had, at the time when the Supreme Lord accosted them at their very seat.

The common interpretations of the aphorisms would tell an unwary reader that sādhana will lead to sāyujya mukti (complete merging with the Absolute), or four other forms thereof (viz,. sālokya, sārṣṭi, sāmīpya and sārūpya), which are more or less indexes of mundane reference instead of prema, or transcendental love.

Misguided theists have drawn incorrect conclusions in their faulty readings of the aphorisms of both Jaiminī and Vyāsa. Hence, the correct transcendental position may be inculcated into the brains of non-devotees when they recollect several passages of Bhāgavatam that reject the erroneous, abstracted ideas of phenomena. Śrī Govinda-bhāṣyam has supplied some additional enlightenments to the writings of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, especially because all vague observers have demanded a positive interpretation of the acintya-bedhābedha-siddhānta of the Supreme Lord.

The speculations of schools such as Sāṅkhya, Pātañjala, Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika, which are actually anti-Vedic – and even the pūrva-mīmāṁsa school, which is fond of exclusive fruitive activity in conformity with the teaching of only one portion of the Vedas – may be said to have come into existence by relying outwardly on the Vedānta itself. After discarding all these speculations, one should adopt the ultimate principle, identical with the doctrine of acintya-bedhābedha, which postulates ‘inconceivable simultaneous distinction and non-difference’. This makes one eligible for being a true devotee.

The basic principle is that this animate world is made up of jīvas, and the inanimate world is constituted of matter. Of these, the jīvas have been manifested by The Supreme Lord’s taṭasthā-śakti (intermediary potency), and this phenomenal world has been manifested by His bahiraṅgā-śakti (outward, material potency). He is consequently to be deemed the cause of all causes.

To explain it in another manner, He regulates all of them by the power of His will, although He is not an entity different from the intermediary and material potencies. By the transformation of those distinct potencies, these three have been produced: pradhāna (the substantive material principle), prakṛti (the material cause) and puruṣa (the efficient cause). Hence, although in regard to the subjective nature of potency He is pradhāna, prakṛti and puruṣa, as the possessor of power He is eternally distinct from all those separate potencies.

Adapted from The Gaudiya, Volume 32, Number 10by the Rays of The Harmonist team

Rays of The Harmonist On-line, Year 8, Issue 1, "The Finite Servant" by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License to ensure that it is always freely available. You may redistribute this article if you include this license and attribute it to Rays of The Harmonist. Please ask for permission before using the Rays of The Harmonist banner-logo.

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